I did this over 5 days, combining Days 1 and 2 into a single day. The word of the week was “wet”! I had good weather only on the morning of Day 4, the rest varied between grey and pouring! This is a lovely trail, the days are not too long, and can be completed well inside the published durations, eg it only took 3 hours to get from Crieff to Comrie, but I guess that allows time for diversions and sightseeing if you wished.

Day 1 is pretty gentle, I took lunch in Comrie, before doing Day 2 route onto St Fillans. The climb up Glen Boltachan was a bit boring through the conifers, but once out of the woods at the top the view opens up magnificently.

Day 3 starts along the disused railway to Lochearnhead, and was very wet and muddy, with sections of loose gravel, which made the going unexpectedly hard. The route ends at Balquhidder, but I had trouble booking a B&B, and there is nowhere to eat in Balquhidder itself, so I stayed in Strathyre. This keeps Day 3 roughly the same length, but adds 3 miles onto Day 4, however taking the “back road” from Strathyre to Balquhidder is a nice stroll through mixed woodland.

The climb up Kirkton Glen is lovely, and the only time in the week I had some nice weather, which naturally changed as soon as I went over into Glen Dochart, however the views are spectacular, including a very snowy Ben More. The descent here was very wet, but not muddy or boggy, just the rain pouring off the hills.

Day 5 back to St Fillans was rain all the way, which is a shame as Glen Beich is spectacular, if very wet underfoot. Day 6 suffered from a dismal morning before easing off after lunch, nonetheless the walking was lovely, especially between Crieff and Comrie Croft, where it would have been rude not to stop for cake!

A final pretty leg along the Earn back into Crieff and I was complete.

Overall, I enjoyed this fine week’s walk: days not too long or overly strenuous, plenty of places to stop for cake, just make sure your boots are waterproof!

Submitted by: Mark Radford

Aberdeenshire

The walk up to the Moness Falls through the Birks of Aberfeldy is brilliant, whether the weather is dry and summery or wet and wintery.

Although I took this picture ages ago after a couple of days of November rain, I remember feeling energised by getting out of the house for an hour or so to trundle up to the falls - which were truly spectacular!

On a summer's day, it's a different sort of spectacle, but no less worth the effort.

Submitted by: Peter, living locally.

Clearly we're not the first generation to know how stunning the routes covered by the Rings of Breadalbane are - nearly 230 years ago, Robert Burns was travelling them as part of his famous Highland Tour in 1787, as his diaries make clear:

"leave Crieff - Glen Aumond - Aumond river - Ossian's grave - Loch Fruoch - Glenquaich - landlord & landlady remarkable characters Taymouth" and then:

"Glen lyon house - lyon river - Druids temple - 3 circles of stones, the outer most sunk - the 2d has 3 stones remaining -the innermost has 8 - two large detached ones like a gate, to the southeast - say prayers in it - Pass - Taybridge - Aberfeldy - described in rhyme"

Burns ventured to Glen Lyon and Croft Moraig before visiting Aberfeldy, where he composed The Birks o' Aberfeldy on the spot.

"Bonie lassie, will ye go, To the birks of Aberfeldy?"

Of course, if he'd known about the Rings of Breadalbane, he'd no doubt have composed a poem about them as well!

Yesterday evening I took the Ring of Breadalbane Explorer Bus from Killin with a friend. We were heading to the Birks Cinema, Aberfeldy to see a film and decided to make the most of the time in the journey to enjoy the scenery. It was such a lovely way to travel and made the evening a really enjoyable excursion. Both bus drivers in each direction were really friendly and informative about the area and we had time for a drink and something to eat before and after the film before returning to Killin just after 9pm. I would highly recommend using the service in this way.

Submitted by: Amanda Clark

Bridge of Lochay Hotel

Killin

This has been the last day of my stay in Aberfeldy and we went out on the 14:22 bus to Acharn and walked up the hill on the track. The views over the loch were beautiful and there is still snow on the hills in the west but the sunshine is warm. In the cave we met some other people who had gone round the circular walk, going up under the trees and coming down the track. The waterfall is beautiful and it's a shame we didn't have any children with us because they would love the cave. We went on up the track and sat down on the grass in the sun to eat a snack and admire the view of the loch and over to Dunkeld. This was so beautiful that we came back down by the track instead of doing the circular walk so that we could look at the changing scenes as we walked down. This brought us down too early for the bus so we took the footpath by the bridge down to the side of the loch where there is a pebbly beach and this just filled the time till we had to take the 17:08 bus back into Aberfeldy. It was a lovely last afternoon of my holiday. Thank you very much for this service.

We took the early afternoon bus from Aberfeldy to the Bridge of Lochay Hotel where we had a nice cup of tea. Then we walked up the road to the National Trust Longhouse. It isn't far, a nice little walk for an able-bodied pensioner. Then we bought our tickets and went round the Longhouse. It was very interesting and the people there were very friendly. This is a preserved cottage where the byre for the animals is just another room in the house. There are furnishings, clothes and tools to see. I particularly liked the little box beds and my sister was taken with the rescued wallpaper samples. After we left the house we felt like a further walk up the quiet road beyond the house. Then we walked back down and returned to the Hotel for a delicious meal from their supper menu before it was time for the bus back. We were able to check the times of the bus because they had timetables out on the table and on display on the wall. It was a lovely, restful afternoon.